Canada’s Larry Walker appears to be in a good position to be elected into Cooperstown in his last year of Hall of Fame eligibility with approximately one third of ballots now known, according to Ryan Thibodaux’s voting tracker.
Walker has 84.4 per cent of the vote as of Monday and needs 75 per cent support in order to be enshrined. It’s already a big gain for the Maple Ridge, B.C., native, who finished last year at 54.6 per cent.
Even with those significant gains, the 53-year-old still needs 195 more votes to be officially elected. The Baseball Writers’ Association of America will announce the balloting results on Jan. 21.
Walker finished his 17-year MLB career with a .313 batting average while hitting 383 home runs, driving in 1,311 runs and generating 72.7 wins above replacement. He was the 1997 NL MVP with Colorado Rockies, a five-time all-star and also played with the Montreal Expos and St. Louis Cardinals.
Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling, Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa are some of the other 14 names returning to the Hall of Fame ballot this year. First-year entries for 2020 include Derek Jeter, Bobby Abreu, Jason Giambi and Cliff Lee.
Jeter currently leads the bunch with 100 per cent support while Bonds and Schilling also have over 75 per cent of the vote, as tracked by Thibodaux.
The Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place on July 26.
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